Not Your Daughter's Skin
Peace…
Okay. I know that maybe a year or so I was singing the praises of my facial routine. About how I have been using Noxzema and Ambi for years months and days and my skin is now glowing and has always been glowing…. I need to amend that.
I’m aging. I accept that. I had a good run with the Noxzema/Ambi combo, but my skin has changed and I want to tell you what has become me at the tender age of Culture Cipher…. I began to notice near the beginning of the spring that my skin was looking a little dull. And my forehead was getting mad flaky. Unlike most of the people in my family, I have dry skin. That’s great because it means I won’t be getting very many zits but it does mean that I may fall victim to premature wrinkling. And by premature I mean premature for Black people.
I changed my routine a bit. Sometime just using something different for a little while can boost the previous product performance. So I tried the spare products under the sink. That didn’t help. In fact my skin got worse. Got flakier, and more inflamed. My forehead was bad too. You could see panels of dead skin. Looked like shingles. My homemade microdermabrasion only made it look more apparent. I felt screwed… and not in a good way.
I’m very sensitive about my skin. It must be perfect. I stopped wearing makeup with KOS and my hair is always covered. Makeup would have covered the imperfections and the hair would have served as a distraction. I have nothing left but my face and teeth. They need to be the bomb! Sound superficial? Yes. So?
I did the knowledge to some Indian (from India) home remedies. I’m into Ayurveda and Indians always seem to have really clear skin, at least in the media. I started using a mixture of oatmeal and fenugreek for a cleanser followed with my ‘wonder oil’ as a moisturizer. It worked. Worked, not dazzled. My skin was moisturized, not breaking out, and the inflammation was going down a lot. But that was my warm weather routine. As the weather turned colder, I became sincerely ashy in the face. Hmmm….
I called on an old tried and true remedy from my childhood. Vaseline. No, I wasn’t fighting anyone… yet. If you put Vaseline on the face, then go out in the cold, the top layer will evaporate but the bottom layer will keep you moisturized if you stay indoors. The problem with that is you have to keep reapplying over and over again. I don’t like that at all. AT ALL. So what is a natural hippy chick to do?
It just so happened that I was watching a program about grooming habits of French women. French women eat fabulous food; just not in large quantities. And they wear wonderful clothes… repeatedly. Their lives are so fabulous and they don’t bathe regularly. Okay now I’m playing… or am I? What caught my attention was their skin maintenance. Even the most poverty stricken woman has an arsenal of skin and beauty products. These women claim to have never ever allowed soap to come anywhere near their faces. Hmm… I know laurel sulfate is the devil and most soaps contain this. I also remembered something my Vietnamese dermatologist told me. Don’t bathe everyday (Ummm…. Now Cipher) and use Crisco on my skin before and after bathing.
So now I am channeling Indian, French, Vietnamese techniques with a little ghettoliciousness in there. And this is what I have come up with……
Cleanser: Liquid Crisco
Oil is good for removing make up before bed. It floats out the debris. But I don’t wear make up. Apply and allow to steam on face while in the shower then rinse it off. Let air dry.
Moisturizers: Ambi or Artra (whichever is on sale) and wonder oil.
After face has air dried, apply the Ambi. Let that sink in, and then apply the wonder oil. I do the second application of wonder oil, because I feel tight with just the Ambi. Sometimes I mix the two.
Night: Ponds
In the house: spritz with rose water glycerin
Now here is the kicker…. Even with all this, I find myself ashy and flaky by mid day. Damn. So I carry with me a mix of shea butter, cocoa butter, wonder oil and Vaseline. I also bust a capsule of vitamin E in it and slather on my face when I get flaky. The flakiness occurs in the “T” zone. Ever since I have been working he new regime the dry patches look like they have decreased. My nose normally has all kinds of dry patches on it. I can look like a quilt. Now it looks like a nose.
My eyebrows keep flakes too. I wonder if it’s dandruff. I have allowed my brows to grow back to their natural bushiness. I’m not sure how long that will last. The natural shape of my brows is rectangle. But when I oil them up they don’t look so bad. I am really sick of always having to groom them. There isn’t anything easy about them. I’m thinking I’m just going to allow them to be a feature of my face since I have nothing else. I would like to get hold of some Latese for the lashes, but I have not been successful. I’m going to start with castor oil on the lashes. That’s supposed to thicken them. We’ll see.
Happy New Year!
Peace
Okay. I know that maybe a year or so I was singing the praises of my facial routine. About how I have been using Noxzema and Ambi for years months and days and my skin is now glowing and has always been glowing…. I need to amend that.
I’m aging. I accept that. I had a good run with the Noxzema/Ambi combo, but my skin has changed and I want to tell you what has become me at the tender age of Culture Cipher…. I began to notice near the beginning of the spring that my skin was looking a little dull. And my forehead was getting mad flaky. Unlike most of the people in my family, I have dry skin. That’s great because it means I won’t be getting very many zits but it does mean that I may fall victim to premature wrinkling. And by premature I mean premature for Black people.
I changed my routine a bit. Sometime just using something different for a little while can boost the previous product performance. So I tried the spare products under the sink. That didn’t help. In fact my skin got worse. Got flakier, and more inflamed. My forehead was bad too. You could see panels of dead skin. Looked like shingles. My homemade microdermabrasion only made it look more apparent. I felt screwed… and not in a good way.
I’m very sensitive about my skin. It must be perfect. I stopped wearing makeup with KOS and my hair is always covered. Makeup would have covered the imperfections and the hair would have served as a distraction. I have nothing left but my face and teeth. They need to be the bomb! Sound superficial? Yes. So?
I did the knowledge to some Indian (from India) home remedies. I’m into Ayurveda and Indians always seem to have really clear skin, at least in the media. I started using a mixture of oatmeal and fenugreek for a cleanser followed with my ‘wonder oil’ as a moisturizer. It worked. Worked, not dazzled. My skin was moisturized, not breaking out, and the inflammation was going down a lot. But that was my warm weather routine. As the weather turned colder, I became sincerely ashy in the face. Hmmm….
I called on an old tried and true remedy from my childhood. Vaseline. No, I wasn’t fighting anyone… yet. If you put Vaseline on the face, then go out in the cold, the top layer will evaporate but the bottom layer will keep you moisturized if you stay indoors. The problem with that is you have to keep reapplying over and over again. I don’t like that at all. AT ALL. So what is a natural hippy chick to do?
It just so happened that I was watching a program about grooming habits of French women. French women eat fabulous food; just not in large quantities. And they wear wonderful clothes… repeatedly. Their lives are so fabulous and they don’t bathe regularly. Okay now I’m playing… or am I? What caught my attention was their skin maintenance. Even the most poverty stricken woman has an arsenal of skin and beauty products. These women claim to have never ever allowed soap to come anywhere near their faces. Hmm… I know laurel sulfate is the devil and most soaps contain this. I also remembered something my Vietnamese dermatologist told me. Don’t bathe everyday (Ummm…. Now Cipher) and use Crisco on my skin before and after bathing.
So now I am channeling Indian, French, Vietnamese techniques with a little ghettoliciousness in there. And this is what I have come up with……
Cleanser: Liquid Crisco
Oil is good for removing make up before bed. It floats out the debris. But I don’t wear make up. Apply and allow to steam on face while in the shower then rinse it off. Let air dry.
Moisturizers: Ambi or Artra (whichever is on sale) and wonder oil.
After face has air dried, apply the Ambi. Let that sink in, and then apply the wonder oil. I do the second application of wonder oil, because I feel tight with just the Ambi. Sometimes I mix the two.
Night: Ponds
In the house: spritz with rose water glycerin
Now here is the kicker…. Even with all this, I find myself ashy and flaky by mid day. Damn. So I carry with me a mix of shea butter, cocoa butter, wonder oil and Vaseline. I also bust a capsule of vitamin E in it and slather on my face when I get flaky. The flakiness occurs in the “T” zone. Ever since I have been working he new regime the dry patches look like they have decreased. My nose normally has all kinds of dry patches on it. I can look like a quilt. Now it looks like a nose.
My eyebrows keep flakes too. I wonder if it’s dandruff. I have allowed my brows to grow back to their natural bushiness. I’m not sure how long that will last. The natural shape of my brows is rectangle. But when I oil them up they don’t look so bad. I am really sick of always having to groom them. There isn’t anything easy about them. I’m thinking I’m just going to allow them to be a feature of my face since I have nothing else. I would like to get hold of some Latese for the lashes, but I have not been successful. I’m going to start with castor oil on the lashes. That’s supposed to thicken them. We’ll see.
Happy New Year!
Peace
Comments
Pond's Dry Skin Cream softens skin beautifully. Some people use it as a moisturizer under make-up. I often use it by itself though its greasy-looking sheen does little to play down wrinkles. I would call it my Day-off Cream. As a sensitive-skin person, I appreciate the fact that Pond's Dry Skin Cream is hypoallergenic and dermatologist tested and that it doesn't clog pores.
Though the instructions on the Pond's Dry Skin Cream jar deal with its facial application, I've found it extremely helpful with dry heels, knees, and elbows. Unlike petroleum jelly, it smoothes into the skin. Unless the weather is extraordinarily dry, I also use Pond's Dry Skin Cream on my forever-dry hands.
Welcome to my blog: http://blog.soliditytrade.com/